Thursday, April 24, 2014

Cliven Bundy: The Ugliest American

So Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, the
newest poster boy for FOX pundits and grouchy, gun-loving white men everywhere,
has sent some of his highest profile supporters scurrying for cover after
addressing “the Negro” problem in comments he recently made. In a quote that
would bring sympathetic tears to the eyes of a KKK Grand Dragon, Bundy clearly
revealed his astonishingly ignorant and racist beliefs.

“They abort their
young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned
how to pick cotton,” Bundy was quoted as saying to a group of supporters last
Saturday. “And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking
cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under
government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

This is the guy that hundreds of
militiamen are willing to fight for. Stupid, angry and armed, Bundy symbolizes
everything that is wrong with the far right in America. They’re angry as hell,
but like a broken compass, never quite sure where to point that anger. They’re quick
to resort to violence. Their rationales for believing what they believe have no
intellectual underpinnings, but are based purely on folklore and fairy tales.
And on top of everything else, they consistently vote for politicians who don’t
really care about them and who will make their lives worse.

Bundy says he doesn’t recognize the
federal government as legitimate and therefore he shouldn’t have to pay it rent
for grazing land. What a crock of shit. The next time I get pulled over for
speeding, I’ll tell the officer I don’t recognize the legitimacy of the federal
government so I won’t accept his ticket. I’m sure he’ll understand. Bundy is no
hero. He’s a racist freeloader who’s trying to skirt the law and get a handout
from the government, all while trying to wrap it up in a pretty patriotic bow.